Find out what it’s like to do work experience at JP Morgan and Santander

Juliette, our Student Marketing Intern, a second year Business student shares her work experience stories and gives an insight into what other students can expect …

Insight into Operations at J.P. Morgan Spring Week

I heard about JPMorgan’s spring week through attending one of the events they held on their Bournemouth campus. I applied for the spring week online by filling in an application form and was then called for an interview.

There were around 30 of us who participated in the spring into operations week and we were all invited to stay in a luxury hotel overlooking the sea. This was great as we all got to know each other even before the week had started and I’ve made some good friends that I will keep in contact with.

The week mainly comprised of talks from Vice Presidents / Directors about different divisions within the back and middle offices of the bank, Q&A sessions with Vice Presidents and Graduates within Technology and Operations, Networking events with Graduates and senior business representatives, Employability and career advice presentations and group exercises supervised by J.P. Morgan Associates and VPs.

My favourite part of the spring week was work shadowing within Client services with Graduates on J.P. Morgan’s 27 month scheme as this gave me a real insight into the diversity of roles that interest me and suit my skill set.

I think attending a spring week is important, particularly within the financial industry as they have invested a lot of time into you and so want you to apply for their internships and grad schemes. I have also gained many contacts from the experience which will no doubt be useful for my career development. Since a spring week is essentially a week-long interview, everyone who participated in the spring week was invited to an assessment centre to interview for a summer internship in 2016. I would therefore recommend applying to a spring week before applying for your internship if you want to gain an insight into the role and company.

Santander Work Skills Placement

During the end of term, I undertook a 2 week work placement at Santander in their university branch in the Students’ Union at Cardiff. I first heard about this placement through attending the careers fair in autumn when I spoke to one of the Santander representatives who said they would contact me once they had availability.

The placement mainly involved work shadowing personal bankers engage in pro-active student and staff business acquisition as well as providing an insight into risk management and minimisation, products and services offered by Santander and methods employed to gain customer loyalty. We even helped fundraise at a charity event by participating in the triathlon challenge to raise money for a cause supported by Santander as well as mystery shopping in other branches to compare customer service.

The best thing about this placement was the knowledge I learnt about Santander and the way the bank operates in order to give its customers the best customer service. I also gained employability skills such as time management as I balanced a 3 hour daily commitment to Santander as well as a full-time university timetable with deadlines and exams.

I would definitely recommend asking to gain work experience there especially if you are interested in working in the financial industry or in a customer facing role.

Good luck with your work experience!

Work experience is relevant to all students, all years and all degree disciplines; so please make the most of the valuable support available to you throughout your studies.